REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. [Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 10, 1899.] The committee on agricultural societies held a special meeting at Amherst, on Monday, December 5, to consider the reports of inspectors of fairs. All these reports showed a more careful consideration on the part of the societies of the various recommendations and regulations of the Board of Agriculture. Certain points are always to be in mind: first, needful sanitary conveniences and care, where large numbers of people are to gather for even a short time; second, careful sifting of applications of various fakirs, who, by one contrivance or another, gather a considerable harvest from the pockets of those who attend the fairs, with very little return; third, careful economy in expenditures, avoiding, as far as possible, risk of large deficit. The interest of the locality must be depended on to insure the prosperity of any fair, and any attempt to draw from a large circle attendance to meet increased expense is unwise. During the year but one application for approval of mortgage has been received. This was approved. Your committee believes that, in most cases, deficit should be made good by contributions among the members of the society, rather than by giving security on the property of the society, and it recommends every society to make all reasonable efforts to raise any sum required. In a single instance among the reports was severe criticism passed upon the efforts of a society to hold a creditable and successful fair; and in one other instance attention was called, though not by the inspector, to unnecessary and undesirable overloading and straining in trial of draft animals. The conditions of the societies differ widely, and, while Hingham is able to give nine exhibitions in the year, all free, and has no cattle show, and Hillside and some others depend wholly on the old-fashioned cattle show, and are eminently successful, it is evident that all cannot be judged by one standard, but are to be commended for honest and earnest efforts. W. A. KILBOURN. N. W. SHAW. N. B. BAKER. Q. L. REED. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND SANITATION. [Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 10, 1899.] The committee, being unable to arrive at any definite plan it would care to recommend, suggests to the Legislature that, as the Cattle Commission is at the present time inoperative, a certain sum be appropriated sufficient to carry on the work in a conservative manner, special attention being paid to sanitary conditions. ISAAC DAMON. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTS AND STATION WORK. [Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 10, 1899.] A careful examination of the Hatch Experiment Station cannot fail to convince any thoughtful person that a large amount of labor, directed by intelligent thought, has been expended in fitting up each department with apparatus well adapted to the work which it is required to do. The farmer who has never visited an experiment station. or attempted to try an agricultural experiment can have but little conception of the well-matured thought, careful, intelligent action, and the expensive apparatus, necessary to establish such new facts as will enable the farmers, in the near future, to feed their plants and their animals better and cheaper than they ever have in the past. That something has already been done in this direction, some of the farmers know; but many of them do not seem to realize that in every department work is being done that without doubt will, in a few years, be a great help to every intelligent tiller of the soil. In the department of entomology, a wonderful work has been done in collecting and classifying the numerous insects which injure, and those which benefit, the farmer. From this department important information is sent out every year that aids the farmer in his efforts to save his crops from destruction by insects. As new destructive insects are continually making their appearance, frequent applications are made to this department by the farmers for information that will aid them in their efforts to protect their crops. Could we ascertain the value of the crops saved every year by the use of the information sent out from this department, it would, no doubt, exceed the cost of the plant and its running expenses. Your committee believes that this de partment is so important that whenever it becomes necessary to go outside of the station to study the habits of a new destructive insect, and make experiments to learn the best methods for its destruction, special appropriations should be made to defray the expenses. if Since the establishment of the first experiment station, much has been done in the direction of testing soils and feeding plants. This is a work which opens a broad field for investigation, and one which, to be conducted to the best advantage, should be under the supervision of one whose mind is not distracted by outside work which has but little any relation to the experiments under trial; in fact, nearly all experiments which are being tried or are likely to be tried in any department of the station, require so much intelligent thought to decide along what lines the next work should be pursued, and such correct measurements, watchful care and good judgment to secure correct conclusions, it is to be regretted that the station is not supplied with ample funds to secure the whole time, and the undivided attention of the professors at the head of each department. Many experiments have been and are yet being tried, to ascertain the best and cheapest forms of plant food for the growth of various plants. While this is one of the most important branches of the work with which the station has to deal, it is one of the most difficult; and it is impossible to make a formula that would give uniform results when applied to different farms, because the plant food which is available for plant growth on one farm may be quite different from that which is available on another farm, at no great distance. While the soil on one farm may be almost entirely deficient in available potash, that on another farm may be very rich in available potash, thus causing a formula cheap and well adapted for one farm to be much more costly than it need to be and yet not adapted to the other; therefore, while we are getting some valuable information from this line of experiments, we must not expect too much with the means which are available in this department. Another line of work which seems to be closely connected with this department is that of the discovery of some cheap compound, which, on application to the soil, will make |